Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1887-12-20
Farmers Ruined by Protection.

1t 9as the late Tom Corwin who said that
10 supporting g. protective tariff The big
ger the fool tie better the srguement"
OF course the consumer pays the addition
81 cost put upon The article consumed, and
the tax neither adds to the quality nor in,
cTeases the quantity OF the thing taxed The
solo object OF protection is to destroy COM
petition IF this is not its purpose, none
can bs discovered. If ii cheapeps prcduc-
tion it kills itself. When Henry Clay first
promulgated bis American system he based
his claim to recognition OF his project upon
the plea that our infant industries Of manu-.
featuring sort needed tie fostering care of a
yaterual government. Reduced 10 plain
English, what the Honorable Henry said
was-"Let Us rob the consumers of bounty
to pay these feeble producers until such
time when the weak enterprises shall be
able to stand alono, and then competition
among them will reduce them 10 level
with the pauper labor OF Europe. Let us
Mr. President, set up and strengthen them
on legaliZed cXtortion until they are strong
enough TO cut each others throats and so re-
lieve the consumers"
For half u century we have been waiting
for two things one is the time when the
infant industries will come of sge and be able
to stand alone the other, for that home
market. We are no nearer either than
when we began.
The main sufferers wtnu5 from this iniqui
lous 5, stem are the farmers. Since 1861 the
agricultural products Of the United States
aave steadily fallen thirty per cent. What
ether industry could survive such SHRINK
fHha tilia~ rft he storHS d.,
mas ed amid his cropa and finds through
ioss Of market. the very soil slipping from
beneath him. He does not know what hurts
him, and borrows on mortgage TO meet his
local taxation, hoping for better returns
from future seasons TO save bis poor home.
] cannot give in an easier aed more
familiar Way the Yiews on this subject, as
seen from an agricultural standpoint, than
10 reprint little address made TO my Deigh
bors, :Then, 10 greetm return home, they
compimented me with serenade said ::
you see. we sell under free trade, and
are left TO the mercy of the voTat form of
pauper labor.
What is our condition when we come TO
purchase? Wig; We are met with protec-
tiop All that We buy, from horseshoe to
mower, all that we wear, all that we build
for shelter, all that we use over and above
our products, from the cradle We are rocked
in to the coffin we rot in-the clothes we
wear, the shinge that shuts off the
storm, the glass we look through, the blank
ct we sleep under 10 the tombstone that
records our supposed virtues, are aug
men,ed in price 20 double their value, SO
that we cell under free trade aud buy uuder
protection Now, do you wonder that we
work u, a disadvantage? If protection is
such good thing we want it. If free trade
is such an evi! we do not wantit. And yet
! we have the one and not the other. We
set what we DO not want and ere denied
what we do want, and tits the most bare
facd. iInpudent swindle ever pernetrated on
"a intelligent people. There is precisely
where insult Is heaped on injury. We are
considered so ignorant and stupid that we
may be plundered with impunity. Ia
voice-"How about wool?'') Let me tell
you. They pretend TO protect Us on wool.
Well, we have lost more on our protected
shears than we ever made on our projected
wool. If the government will give US free
lumber, free salt, cease its protection to the
hsrbed wire monopoly, and see that an
charged reasonable rate for transportation
on these public highways, called railroads,
1 will undertake to undersell at profit any
wool grown in any other part of the earth
than that of these United States. Dom
Piqtt in Home KnoWledge